The Red Rock Corridor Commission last month voted overwhelmingly to back a controversial plan to introduce bus rapid transit service along a 30-mile transitway connecting downtown Minneapolis with Hastings while leaving the door open for future commuter rail expansion as far south as Red Wing.

The board followed the recommendations of a recent report that asserts that the project would provide much-needed commuter service and congestion relief for fast-growing bedroom communities in Washington and Dakota counties.

"The Metropolitan Council has projected that the southeast quadrant of the metro area will grow by another 100,000 people over the next 20 years," Red Rock officials said on the project's website. "Despite the growth in some of the outlying areas, 94 percent of the jobs in the study area are within Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the primary commute pattern is to these two downtowns."

Red Rock officials say they will now turn their attention to crafting a funding plan for the project, while building ridership on the existing express bus service along Hwy. 61, which had 234,881 riders last year, according to Metro Transit ridership reports.

The 11-member Red Rock board, minus several members, voted at its March 24 meeting to adopt bus rapid transit, but didn't rule out the possibility of adding commuter rail service at some point in the future, said Commissioner Jen Peterson.

"That may be 20 years down the road. That may be 10 years down the road. That depends on how the population shift may be happening in the suburbs," Peterson, who also serves on the Cottage Grove City Council, said in a telephone interview.

Another commissioner, St. Paul Park Mayor Keith Franke, said last week that he didn't know whether BRT was "the answer."

"Do I worry that there won't be enough ridership? I would say yes. But, I would've had that worry even with the transit rail," he said.

Washington County Commissioner Autumn Lehrke, who recently was re-elected chairman of the Red Rock board, did not respond to a request for comment.

Transit officials have estimated the annual operating cost of the Red Rock line at $3.8 million — a price tag that includes the $1.4 million cost of operating the three Metro Transit express bus routes (routes 361, 364 and 365) that currently pick up passengers along Hw. 61.

The long-planned project has drawn opposition from residents of the communities that will be served, some of whom attended board meetings to voice their concerns. Pointing to other metro area transit projects that have been plagued by delays, ballooning costs and low ridership, opponents questioned how much demand exists for transit services in the suburbs, where many people have cars.

The Red Rock line would follow one of two routes east from Minneapolis to Lower Afton Road in St. Paul via the Union Depot, then run south along dedicated lanes on Hwy. 61 to Hastings. Stations are planned for St. Paul's Battle Creek neighborhood, Cottage Grove, Newport and Hastings.

Red Rock board member Janice Rettman, a Ramsey County commissioner, said that her frequent drives past a park-n-ride facility in Cottage Grove have only reinforced her conviction that the board made the right decision.

"It's packed," she said. "So there is some indication that ridership could grow."

Twitter:@StribJany

Libor Jany is the Minneapolis crime reporter for the Star Tribune. He joined the newspaper in 2013, after stints in newsrooms in Connecticut, New Jersey, California and Mississippi. He spent his first year working out of the paper's Washington County bureau, focusing on transportation and education issues, before moving to the Dakota County team.